


The Wild, The Beautiful and The Damned

by milibandsdruidsmile (HillyHale)



Category: Political RPF - UK 20th-21st c.
Genre: Consensual Nonmonogamy, Cuddling, David Cameron - Freeform, Ed Miliband - Freeform, F/M, Fluff, Holidays, I AM SORRY, M/M, Nick Clegg - Freeform, Piggate, Polyamory, Triad relationship, but ed has them, but nothing on-screen and nothing graphic, ed and his druid eyes, ed miliband has druid eyes in this, happiness kind of, i mean there are ups and downs and everything, lil nose kisses, mild discussion of bestiality, not sure what druid eyes are, picks up not long after piggate, pig gate, political fluff, sad start but it gets better ok?, uk parliament
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2015-10-07
Updated: 2015-10-08
Packaged: 2018-04-25 06:46:21
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 3
Words: 1,589
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4950586
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/HillyHale/pseuds/milibandsdruidsmile
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>His relationship with David and Ed in tatters after the end of the Coalition and the disastrous result of the 2015 general election, Nick has upped sticks to his constituency in Sheffield Hallam. At loose ends, David waits for the courage to call him, and Ed waits for the phone to ring. Months pass, not a word spoken between them, and then a book is published which tears to shreds every part of David's so-carefully-built-up reputation.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. The Wild

David could not remember the last time he had felt a true sense of purpose. Everything seemed meaningless. Not even the children, not even Sam (though she’d tried, and how), not even work could fill the empty void he’d felt for… how long was it? When was the last time he had been without slump, walked with a spring in his step and a genuine smile? Certainly not since the election, even though he’d won. Since the last one, then? It was not an easy question to consider, not in the least, and, after all, it wasn’t as if he made a good habit of answering questions sincerely, was it? That was why he’d gone into Politics in the first place.

But, the more David thought about it as he scanned through a draft of his next speech that chilly September morning, the more he came to realise that he could, after all that time he’d spent wishing he couldn’t, pinpoint almost exactly the last time he’d felt like he was actually doing something worthwhile, something meaningful with his life.

The Coalition. The Coalition had meant something - he’d been useful then, so fulfilled in everything he did - but it was too much to consider that he had felt empty since then, too much for his mind to take in with his eyes open. David Cameron, Prime Minister and Broken Man, put his head in his hands, let himself sink forward onto the desk, and remembered:

Nick was there. Nick was there, always, to stop David’s ideas getting out of hand, and David was always there to make sure Nick’s ideas were heard by the House in the first place. It was perfect - they were perfect for each other. Sam knew what was going on, of course - he’d made sure to tell her as soon as he realised (after all, what else would have been fair?) - but what David hadn’t anticipated was that she would be fine with it, even making sure to invite Nick and Miriam over for dinner as often as possible.

Over a table of cold-ham-and-salad (David’s signature dish) at Number Ten one week, and a table of fish and chips at Nick’s the next (he couldn’t cook, but he knew David liked cod, so he popped down to the nice little shop on the square), they’d decided that they would summer all together that year, at the Camerons’ house in the Cotswolds, and so they had. That summer had been one of the happiest David had ever known, full of long walks in the hills and across the greens. Sunshine had beamed at them as if the sky had been showing its approval of their burgeoning love.

Then, in September, like they were birds ushered back into their cages, as if they were students dragged back into the school-room, London called, and they found themselves, once more, in among the glass towers and thrusting spires of Westminster, a rude awakening if ever there was one, and a sharp reminder that, though they had been free to fill their lives with colour and happiness in the Cotswolds, it could not last between them. They had to return to the dismal grey streets, devoid of saturation, devoid of hope for a life together anywhere other than behind closed doors.

But then there was Ed, sweet, gentle Ed with his soft Druid eyes and a smile that said, “With me, you are safe. Confide, for I have a full heart.” And then things became really complicated.


	2. The Beautiful

It was one thing, thought Nick Clegg, to lose the election. He hadn’t expected to win on his own - another Coalition government would have been the only way he could have got in, and it would have meant five more years with David and Ed - but to lose completely, by such a huge landslide, was not easy. David had come to find him afterwards, tried to hold him while he cried, but Nick had shrugged him off with fury in his eyes and an edge to his voice that he felt sure had hurt David a lot more than he’d meant to. Even now, he regretted it, but there was nothing he could do to take back the past, only to look forward, into the future, and to try to make it better.

It was one thing to lose the election and step down, quite another to leave the city and step down from a relationship he’d had for so long.

The phone had rung nearly every day since then, and his personal email inbox was filling up with missives from Ed and David, all moved to the junk folder, automatically, upon receipt. Hundreds, there must be hundreds by now, Nick thought, and he’d changed his mobile phone and number, just in case either of them should want to contact him like that. It was too soon, too early to face up to the way in which he’d broken both their hearts.

Sheffield was nicer than London, he thought - far away from London, at least, far away from David and Ed and all the hurt he’d caused them in leaving, in barricading himself into his office at Sheffield Hallam. Even the stony sky, blank and smooth like a pebble, wasn’t a clean enough slate for him to start again. Nothing ever would be, and as long as his phone remained unanswered, his emails unread, Nick knew that the clean break he had wanted when he moved North would be neither clean nor a break, only an open wound.that would never heal.

There was but one option, only one path he could take. Picking up the phone, he lifted it to his ear and hesitated at the keypad before dialling David’s mobile. In the silence of his office, the ringing on the other end of the line was rather louder than he’d wanted it to be - what if someone heard? - and it was all he could do not to slam the receiver down before David had a chance to pick up. Still, at the first “Hello, David Cameron speaking,” Nick was overwhelmed with guilt and quickly pressed the button to cut the line.

Too close. He wasn’t ready to talk yet.

He rubbed his eyes, and resolved to call Miriam instead - she, after all, was in town that day, and could probably pop into the office for a little while at least. Right now, Nick needed a hug.


	3. The Damned

Volume One - Book Three - The Damned

Ed Miliband stared down the phone on his desk. He had been waiting for it to ring for weeks. When would Nick call? When would David call/ When would anybody, in fact, that was not from the phone company or otherwise a cold-caller, call? Even his wife favoured texting over talking.

He reached tentatively for the receiver and felt his heart racing. That would ever do. He took his phone - his mobile phone - from his pocket and took a selfie, letting his calming druid eyes soothe him as he picked up the landline receiver.

Picture-Ed watched Real-Ed as he dialled David's number and waited as the other end of the line rang. The third ring only had time to chirp before it was replaced with the sound of David's voice.

"Hello?" There was something in his voice, something like panic, or, perhaps, worry. "Ed?"

"It's me. How... how are you?"

David took a long, shaky breath and Ed heard him swallowing hard on the other end of the line. "Something's happened... There's a story that's come out-"

Ed's heart skipped a beat - had their relationship, so long carefully concealed from the media, been made public?

"You need to check the papers, Ed... it's everywhere... I can't say it out loud, I can't... Please get here as fast as you can."

Ed had nothing in his schedule. He texted Justine, 'Going down to London. Dave needs to talk f2f. xx' and then set off. Driving down to London from Doncaster gave him a lot of time to talk, and, thus, plenty of time to panic.

By the time he reached Westminster and was turning down Downing Street, his heart was pounding and his hands were shaking at the wheel. A window flew open on the top floor of Number Ten and David peered out, ashen-faced and teary.

Somewhere, a journalist's camera flashed and David slammed the window shut again and disappeared behind the curtains. A moment later, the front door opened, just a crack, and a hand reached out and grabbed Ed's sleeve, pulling him inside.

When he looked up, expecting to see David's face in front of his own, he did not see David. He did not even see the broken man David had been at the window, or on the phone. He saw the last person he had expected to see, someone he had thought he would not see again for a very long time.

"Nick," he whispered, unable to take his eyes off him.

Nick just opened his arms to him and held him close for a long time. It was not particularly difficult for Ed to stand up straight enough to look him in the eye, but he elected instead to close his Druid eyes, rest his head on Nick's shoulder and bury his face in the side of Nick's neck. "Tell me," he whispered.

"No, let me tell you," said David, and Nick and Ed broke apart to see him standing, crying quietly, at the bottom of the stairs. And they let him tell them.


End file.
